A fun challenge from PETO !
FF: 9 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TURN IN |
Shot during surrender (4,2)
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TURN ( shot ) IN ( during ) |
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| 4 | TROOPS |
Time to track back in great numbers (6)
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T ( time ) reverse of SPOOR ( track ) |
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| 8 | EMULATE |
Former pupil reflective, during summer, in Paris Match (7)
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reverse of ALUM ( former pupil ) in ETE ( summer, in french ) |
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| 9 | FURTHER |
More cat hair mostly in that place (7)
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FUR ( cat hair ) THERe ( that place, mostly ) |
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| 11 | ESPADRILLE |
Lad with pliers repaired Earl’s shoe (10)
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[ LAD PLIERS ]* E ( earl ) |
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| 12 | MATE |
Fellow worker’s mother runs off (4)
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MATEr ( mother, without R – run ) |
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| 13 | SCENE |
Public display of anger witnessed on the radio (5)
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sounds like SEEN ( witnessed ) |
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| 14 | COBBLERS |
Chum’s swallowing Labour leader’s nonsense (8)
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COBBER'S ( chum's ) containing L ( Labour, leader ) |
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| 16 | PANCREAS |
Organ grinder finally tucking into assorted canapés (8)
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R ( grindeR, final letter ) in [ CANAPES ]* |
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| 18 | ASCOT |
Bringer of good luck needing no introduction in town (5)
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mASCOT ( bringer of good luck, without starting letter ) |
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| 20 | LEAN |
Contents of file? Another list (4)
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hidden in "..fiLE ANother.." |
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| 21 | LIONS SHARE |
The largest part of ship filled with animals? Just the opposite (5,5)
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SS ( ship ) in [ LION HARE ( animals ) ] |
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| 23 | PAGEANT |
Attendant largely opposed to showy display (7)
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PAGE ( attendant ) ANTi ( opposed to, largely ) |
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| 24 | HEROINE |
Perhaps Joan of Arc’s horse gets home at last (7)
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HEROIN ( horse ) E ( homE, last letter ) |
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| 25 | EXTORT |
Screw former revolutionary on the way back (6)
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EX ( former ) reverse of TROT ( revolutionary ) |
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| 26 | REASON |
Argue about crime Morse essentially dismissed (6)
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RE ( about ) ArSON ( crime, without R – moRse essentially ) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TIMES |
Occasions for millions to stuff restrictions (5)
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M ( millions ) in TIES ( restrictions ) |
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| 2 | RELEASE |
Free from obligation with regard to rental agreement (7)
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RE ( with regard to ) LEASE ( rental agreement ) |
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| 3 | INTERFERE |
Meddle with current rent-free arrangement (9)
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I ( current ) [ RENT FREE ]* |
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| 5 | ROUSE |
Complain — not great at first in stir (5)
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gROUSE ( without G – Great, first letter ) |
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| 6 | OPTIMAL |
Best to beat it? Heading north after work (7)
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reverse of [ LAM ( beat ) IT ] after OP ( work ) |
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| 7 | SMELT A RAT |
Was suspicious of fish-eating American animal getting upset (5,1,3)
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SMELT ( fish ) containing reverse ( upset ) of [ A ( american ) RAT ( animal ) ] – unless i got this wrong, i think the clue was a little more convoluted than it needed to be. |
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| 10 | BLACK SPOT |
Sooty to identify dangerous place (5,4)
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BLACK ( sooty ) SPOT ( identify ) |
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| 13 | STALEMATE |
Draw from opening of spy story by ship’s officer (9)
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S ( Spy, first letter ) TALE ( story ) MATE ( ship's officer ) |
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| 15 | BRASSIERE |
Support for old club starts to reinvigorate Everton (9)
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BRASSIE ( old club, traditional name of golf club no.2 as i learnt today ) RE ( starting letters of "..Reinvigorate Everton") |
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| 17 | CONSENT |
Politician dispatched by agreement (7)
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CON ( politician ) SENT ( dispatched ) |
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| 19 | CAHOOTS |
Those colluding may be in them? (7)
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not very cryptic def |
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| 21 | LONER |
Person avoiding company of fellow beyond help has left for good (5)
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gONER ( fellow beyond help, with L – left replacing G – good ) |
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| 22 | RUN-IN |
Argument at home over sharing work (3-2)
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reverse of IN ( home ) in RUN ( work ) |
Thanks, PETO and Turbolegs!
Liked EMULATE, LIONS SHARE, EXTORT (Just remembered ‘countersunk screws’), SMELT A RAT and RUN-IN.
RUN-IN
‘Sharing’ as an inclusion indicator may be new. I took it as ‘dividing’.
INTERFERE
def: Just ‘meddle’ should be more apt?
Yes, SMELT A RAT was a bit of a muddle. Still not sure I understand it.
I initially pencilled in MULET for 18a, thinking perhaps it was an English town I’d never heard of, but realised later that ASCOT made more sense.
Requiring knowledge of French in EMULATE was a bit of a hard ask, but being the proud owner of a CD of Berlioz’ Les Nuit d’Été I managed it. (And was inspired to listen to the CD again, that I hadn’t listened to for many years.) Couldn’t work out why TROT was revolutionary, but the penny has since dropped. And I didn’t parse LONER, but should have.
Thanks Peto & Turbolegs.
Thanks for the blog , a good set of neat clues.
SMELT A RAT I agree with the blog , it seems a bit strange because SMELT , A and RAT are all in the wordplay but have been mixed up a bit, Similar for RUN-IN.
The definition for EMULATE was well disguised.
Enjoyable and, for the most part, very soundly clued though I agree that 7d was a little laboured and perhaps RUN-IN too, as Roz says.
Still, I made steady progress through the grid hitting a bit of a wall in the SE before finishing with the aforementioned RUN-IN.
I very much liked EMULATE, ESPADRILLE, COBBLERS and LIONS SHARE (for once, I understood the ‘just the opposite’ trick)!
Thanks to Peto and Turbolegs.
Enjoyable puzzle from Peto today. I eventually worked out SMELT A RAT but couldn’t parse the simple looking RUN-IN. I liked COBBLERS (even if COBBER for ‘chum’ is barely heard these days) and the surface for PANCREAS; I don’t know if sweetbread would ever be served for ‘canapés’ though and probably a good thing.
Thanks to Peto and Turbolegs
I think the setters should be allowed to decide just how convoluted a clue needs to be – that’s their job.
I liked SMELT A RAT(5,1,3) but a clue involving a fish and an animal with that enumeration would be too easy to solve.
A RAT is there, but it’s also there upside-down in the middle, so let’s clue it that way with “getting upset”
A – the article is too easy – let’s make it an American animal.
How to indicate the inclusion? – the fish is eating the animal – let’s make it a fish-eating American animal – with an adjective needing a “lift-and-separate”
And there you have it – just as convoluted as possible, and ready for parsing. Repeat the process for RUN-IN.
INCA HOOTS – should have been more convoluted.
BRASSIERE = “Support” – a real throwback. A “write-in-and-then-parse”.
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TROOPS was my loi – Had to remember ‘TROOP (plural TROOPS – (collective) – A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general) ‘
And “The Scottish Play” I did for O Level:
‘c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies… [Act V, scene iii]:
“That which should accompany old age — | As honour, love, obedience, TROOPS of friends — | I must not look to have.”‘
It can also be applied to baboons and meerkats. “Simples”.
There was some discussion on share as an inclusion indication when this clue:
19a What could lead whistleblower to share photos (6) PREFIX
appeared in Independent 10,820.
I don’t think it works, because it relies on a synonym of share, presumably divide, having a meaning that share itself does not have.
I could not parse RUN-IN because I could not see how “sharing” was supposed to indicate “inside.” I guess that works???
I’m perfectly happy when a setter uses ‘sharing’ to indicate an overlap but as an inclusion indicator – a definite thumbs down from me.
1dn: I thought FT house style was supposed to be mn for million(s), irritating as that is!
Thanks Peto. Despite an error — I had SMELL A RAT (wrong tense, I know) and MALE for fellow (neither would parse of course) — I enjoyed this with EMULATE, FURTHER, HERIONE, and the very clever LIONS SHARE being my top picks. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Yes, I feel that SHARE as used here does not have the sense needed for the cluing operation. Divide or split ARE synonyms of share, but only in the sense of (both parties) having or using something. I’m afraid it’s one of those ‘that’ll do’ synonyms that won’t actually do.
Peter@5 – ditto on the ’60s English grammar school education, but SMELT is just an alternative spelling, not looked down on by any dictionary.
And without it we wouldn’t have…
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/he_who_smelt_it_dealt_it
The OED gives share as a long obsolete variant of shear with the sense of “To cut (something) into pieces; to break (something) apart by cutting; to cut up, divide.” Perhaps that’s what Peto had in mind here, though it seems a bit of an ask – OK for Azed, maybe a bit rich for a standard daily cryptic?
Enjoyable puzzle none the less, thanks, Peto and Turbolegs. EMULATE and PANCREAS were my faves.
SHARE and SHEAR are close in their OE origins for sure (scearu vs sceran, plus ON skera & Ger sheren) but a number of containerinds could have been deployed without controversy for that clue.
Btw I enjoyed this one.
Put furrier for 9a (double Def?) and lost the whole top right. Didn’t know heroine was a horse, but guessed heroine anyways and saved most of bottom right. Left side was all fun and good. Thank you!